"Looking for mass combat WWII air combat rules" Topic

I have a load of 1/700 planes and would like to play some large aerial combat games, say a bomber stream with escorts vs interceptors where a player can manage something like 20 planes or so. Is there any thing like that out there?

Thanks.

Might be possible with Bombers over Germany 2.0, which is a pretty simple set, and is free.

There's a PDF of it out there on the net.

PM me if you can't find it, and I'll e-mail you, if you send me your address.

The old Blue Skies series should work too.

Dear minigamer,
some years ago we have taken the wonderful work from Mic McGoldrick and Bill Molyneaux and made a version for our own games.
We have managed to play with 50 or so planes, a whole US heavy bomber box struggling its way to Germany, with US fighter escorts battling german fighters (and jet fighters!)
If you are curious you may have a look here:

link

Cheers,
Stefano

You could give A Mighty Fortress (Defending the Reich 1944/45)a try.

link

If you want to represent aircraft flying at different altitude levels, then I recommend John Stanoch's Blue Sky series. We had a bit of discussion about this about a month ago:

TMP link

The Blue Sky series (specifically, White Star Blue Sky
which is the supplement dealing with the US Strategic
Bombing campaign against Germamy) is the only one I've
found capable of supporting massed (I mean MASSED) heavy
bomber formations, say 60 plus bombers. I've done
as many as 90 Forts and Libs in one game, with escorts
and interceptors.

The players run the fighters, the bombers just sit. As
a new turn begins, the fighters are moved to a relation-
ship with the bomber formation which reflects the bombers
move (straight ahead at level speed; damaged bombers
incapable of that are removed from play and counted as a
kill).

The fighters then move, alternating interceptor and escort
groups. If there are twin engine interceptors, they move
before any other fighters.

Another vote for Bombers Over Germany.

You can find them here: link

I would like to use a mass air battle rule set for smaller fights in the southwest Pacific.

Legionarius, despite its title I think you'd find Bombers Over Germany would adapt very well to the Pacific

If you want something simple, fastplay and fun I reccomend the free rules from Junior General.

link

I have done several large air battles with friends.
TMP link

Thanks for all the suggestions folks. I'm happily checking out all of them.

Another vote for the Blue Skies series, though most of my experience is with Black Cross Blue Skies, which is hex based and takes a lot of space.